Drivers aged between 17 and 19 are involved in almost one in eight of all driver injuries and deaths in the UK

Teenage drivers in Wales are more likely to be killed or injured on the roads than anywhere else in the UK, worrying new figures have revealed.

Casualties among young drivers across Britain are already more than 10 times higher than they should be for the number of drivers they represent – with the figure for parts of Wales 50% higher again.

The critical 17 to 19 age group is involved in almost one in eight of all driver injuries and deaths in the UK, at 11.9%, a new Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) study, commissioned by the RAC Foundation, has shown.

It reveals that the rate for the Dyfed-Powys Police Force area is more than half as high again at 18.2%, giving it the highest casualty rate of anywhere in the UK.

The figure for the Gwent force area is almost as bad at 17%, and both North Wales, at 15.8%, and South Wales, at 15.2%, are significantly above the worryingly high national average.

Young driver road accidents

RAC Foundation

Experts at the RAC Foundation highlighted the research as yet more evidence that the Government needs to take action to introduce a graduated licensing system (GDL) for young drivers in the UK.

They want young drivers restricted for a limited period to give them time to gain vital experience. Such schemes can include limits on the number of young passengers a new driver can carry and a late night curfew.

They point out that one in five young drivers will have an accident within six months of passing their test.

Young drivers also run a greatest risk of becoming a road casualty in rural areas, due to the lower quality of the roads and generally more challenging driving conditions, the TRL research reveals.

Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “Whichever way you cut it young drivers pose a significant and disproportionate risk to themselves and to others and it is in rural areas where the casualty rate is highest.”

He added: “The government has repeatedly delayed announcing its strategy to help reduce young driver accidents but here is yet another piece of evidence which shows graduated licensing can significantly cut death and injury.

“The frustration is that while ministers here prevaricate, action is being taken just across the Irish Sea. Earlier this month a bill was put before the Northern Ireland Assembly which proposes the introduction of many of the measures this government appears to have ruled out.

“We should all have an interest in preserving young drivers’ lives rather than exposing them to undue risk at the stage of their driving careers where they are most vulnerable. This is about ensuring their long term safety and mobility. Not curtailing it. ”

Philip Gomm, an RAC Foundation spokesman, acknowledged that Government slowness to act was partly motivated by a desire to ensure young people’s liberty was not curtailed unnecessarily.

He argued that limited restrictions placed on a driver early in life could serve to protect them from a lack of experience for the rest of their lives.

“There is nothing liberating about getting killed or hurt in a road accident,” he said.

Charity The Institute of Advanced Drivers (IAM), also gave qualified support to suggestions of a graduated driver licensing.

Bill Rodgers, head of driving standards at the IAM, said: “In order to make it work for us it would need to be carefully drawn up, and not used as a blunt instrument.”

He said that such a system would need to acknowledge how important transport can be in rural areas for young people going to and from college or to and from work and for socialising.

The study uses the term “casualty” to define a person killed or injured in an accident.

The TRL research also carries a “conservative estimate” of what the reduction in casualties would be in each area if a GDL system was introduced.

Based on the experience of other countries where GDL is in operation, the report authors concluded that across Britain about 4,500 fewer people would be hurt in an average year.

This figure includes about 430 people who would otherwise have been killed or seriously injured.

The research looked at 49 different areas of Britain. Greater London had the lowest casualty rate at 5.6%, other rural areas such as Cumbria also had a 15.8% rate.

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